


You’re A Good Man, Danny Reagan

by Visionsofdazzlingrooms



Series: Blue Bloods: Episode Fix [11]
Category: blue bloods
Genre: 1x17 I believe, Danny’s time in Fallujah, Episode Tag, F/M, Linda comforts him, Silver Star, lindanny, request, such a good episode, which there was more of Danny & Linda
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-18
Updated: 2020-12-07
Packaged: 2021-03-09 18:02:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,059
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27620423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Visionsofdazzlingrooms/pseuds/Visionsofdazzlingrooms
Summary: What happens after Danny confides in Linda during the episode Silver Star?*requested
Relationships: Danny Reagan/Linda Reagan
Series: Blue Bloods: Episode Fix [11]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1983686
Comments: 11
Kudos: 6





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ancilla89](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ancilla89/gifts).



> For ancilla89. Hope you like what I came up with! Probably not what you wanted, but here you go

The cold bathroom is refreshing after that whopper of a nightmare. The porcelain sink cools his sweaty palms, the darkness surrounding him. He understands now why his wife escapes to the bathroom after bad dreams or just bad nights. It's cool, relaxing, and somehow comforting.

This case.... Danny shakes his head. If he dwells on it anymore, he'll be awake till next Thursday. He counts his breaths, swallowing that damn tears that have been wanting to come ever since he was assigned this case. 

Couldn't they screen the cases or something? His boss knows about his time in Fallujah, couldn't Gormley give those veteran cases to someone else? But who would solve them with such passion and determination? Who else would work tirelessly to find the truth behind it, so the vet wouldn't be tainted in a bad light?

No one else would but him. Danny supposes that's why he gets those cases. That's why he's standing at the sink right now, at some unholy hour in the morning. He didn't used to have these problems; all his childhood nightmares (the ones he remembers) are a walk in the park compared to the ones he has now. The nightmares are worse than the flashbacks. In flashbacks, it's just that. An event flashing before his eyes, no elaborate anything. Plain and simple past event coming back to haunt him during any time of the day: while he's working, while he's eating a sandwich, while he's working out. They come even when he's doing something he enjoys, like playing football or baseball with the kids, or when he's with Linda, in the most intimate way, and she's calling out his name in a voice that makes him drunk. 

Nightmares.... nightmares are different. Nightmares twist thoughts and ideas. Nightmares take something innocent, and turn it into something so sick. He remembers the time he had a dream about getting ice cream with his family, and they were all shot down, out of the blue. (That had made him overprotective for about a month). He remembers the time Linda had one similar to that; she was hiking up a mountain, stumbled across a cave, where he was being held captive, then she- in the dream- had to watch him get shot. Nightmares are scary and awful, and shouldn't be allowed. 

Danny doesn't know he's crying until he tastes salty tears in the corners of his mouth. He realizes his breathing is ragged and dangerously close to a panic attack. He closes his eyes, swallows, and uses a trick he knows from the Marines. It's a simple little thing that only works half the time for him, but he does it anyway. Fifty percent's better than zero, right?

Don't think. Don't think. Don't think. Don't think. Don't think. 

He repeats it ten times, and another ten, and another. Damn fifty percent. Why couldn't it work this time? 

In the mirror, he sees Linda sleepily walk up behind him, and hug him. She kisses his shoulder, now bare and void of the silk pajama top. She leans her head on his shoulder, "you're a good man, Danny Reagan."

He scoffs at that. "Yeah, right."

She steps back a little, concern in her tone. "Have you been crying?"

"No." 

“I know post crying sniffles more than anyone. What’s wrong? The case?”

“I’m fine, Linda.”

“Well, I’m not.”

He turns towards her, concern lacing his face. 

“I’m worried about you, honey. You don’t usually act this way. You’re not sleeping or eating.”

“You don’t need to worry about me,” Danny puts his hands on her upper arms. 

“I’m a cop’s wife, a mother of two, and I’m a woman. It’s my job to worry.”

“You’re starting to sound like Laura Petrie.”

“She was the modern woman, an example to us all.” Linda smiles almost triumphantly. “Let’s try to get some sleep, huh? Maybe you’ll feel better in the morning.”

***********

Danny wakes up about fifteen minutes before the alarm goes off. He needs to get the day started- maybe a quick shower or a lap around the yard to clear his head. His eyes are dry and itchy, and his throat feels drier than that damned dessert in Fallujah. He needs to get up, but a comforting weight half on top of him makes him stay. 

Danny lazily runs his fingers through Linda’s hair as she continues to sleep. She really is the best; she has to be some kind of Angel. There’s no other explanation why she has put up with him and stayed with him this long. He hopes she’ll stay forever. 

She will stay forever, of course she will. And she’ll be by his side, just like this, three years down the road when those damned Fallujah memories and flashbacks rear their ugly head around once again.


	2. Lean On Me

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I watched Sliver Star over the weekend, and WOW. I forgot that it was that good of an episode!
> 
> I particularly attached to the scene in the unfinished building where Danny starts crying. What happens after that? (Besides the funeral)

"Where'd Reagan go?" Jackie asks the helpful man. 

"He went up to the tenth floor, lookin' for Troy."

"Alright, thanks." As Jackie rides the elevator to the tenth floor, she steadily grew worried. Her partner has been out of sorts this entire case, and she has to wonder if he'd go nutty and beat Troy's brains into his stomach. 

With her gun ready, Jackie steps off the elevator, hearing noises of struggling. "Don't do it, Danny," she quietly mumbled as she walks towards the sounds. 

"Let's see how you like it, huh?" Danny shouts. 

"Oh no," Jackie picks up her pace and is shocked to see the sight in front of her. Danny is... crying? She wants to say something, but before she can think of what to say, Danny has sensed her. "Reagan?"

"It's okay. It's alright. Just Cuff him," the detective gets off Troy and walks to the window. "Just cuff him."

Jackie and Danny ride the elevator down in an awkward silence. She doesn’t know what to say to her partner, her friend. He just.. crumpled, and she doesn’t know why. She had a hunch, though, and as it would turn out she is right. 

"I should get a little bit of sympathy," Troy speaks up, looking at Jackie. "He hit me. Police brutality."

Danny hits Troy on the upside of his head, then quickly exits the elevator after it dings. He is royally pissed off and just needs time alone. He slams the door to the car, angrily wiping away the tears. 

Back in the building, Jackie bites her lip. She pulls out her phone and sends a quick text to the one person who could make everything okay again. Looking at the perp, she shakes her head. "You picked the wrong guy to mess with."

"Whatever," Troy is certain that his lawyer would get the charges against him dropped. 

************

Linda briskly walks into the five-four, holding her breath. She has been crying on her way over, but she is quickly able to stop once she pulls her car into the parking lot. Her heart almost stops pounding when she sees her husband isn’t at his desk. "Jackie!"

Jackie stands from her desk, ready to calm Linda's fears and worries. "He's okay, he's alright."

Linda visibly relaxes as she put her hand over her heart. "What's wrong then? The case?"

"Yeah. Sorry my text sounded worse than it is. He bloodied the perp's nose, got a few battle wounds himself. Gormley's letting him use his office until he's okay."

"Thank you, Jackie. I've been worried about him."

"Don't mention it."

Linda smiles and heads towards Gormley's office. She knocks on the door, "honey, it's me."

Danny furrows his brow. Why is Linda here? And how did she know he is in here? He stands from the chair and opens the door for her. 

Immediately, she hugs him and closed the door with her foot. "I'm so sorry, honey." She kisses his cheek, "are you okay? What happened?"

Danny pulls away, and is expecting Linda to yell or scold about the blood on his face, but she doesn’t. "Aren't you going to yell?"

"No. Why?" Linda puts her purse on the desk and pulls out a miniature first aid kit. 

Danny shrugs; doesn’t he deserve to be yelled at? After all, he let himself get far to involved with this case. Shouldn't that call for some ribbing and the obligatory 'you can't be a cop if you let your personal feelings take over' speech? 

Linda walks over to him, and gently runs her thumb over the small gash on his head. "Lemme fix this for you."

Danny follows her to the desk, then sits on top of it. "So.. you're not mad?"

"Why would I be mad?" She grabs the gauze and a bottle of rubbing alcohol. 

"Because I got too invested with the case," he sounds worn out and defeated. 

"Listen, babe. If I was a veteran, lying dead in some alleyway, I sure as hell would want you to solve my case." Linda lightly dabs the gauze on the dried blood on Danny's face. It has dripped down the side of his face and stopped where his collar rested on his neck. "You're the best. And no one is going to solve the case of a murdered marine like an ex-marine with a vengeance."

"I guess."

"You sound like you've been crying." She tilts his chip up so she can remove the dried blood on his neck. 

"I hate cases like this."

"I know, sweetie... but you've always got me to talk to."

"You don't need to be bothered with my problems," he shakes his head, feeling tired. He hasn’t slept well since he was handed this case, which means Linda hasn’t slept well either. "You don't need to lose sleep because of them."

"Hey," Linda stops cleaning the blood and looks her husband in the eye. "I'm your wife, you’re my husband. For better or worse. Marriage, by definition, is a partnership. It's fifty fifty. Meaning it is my homered duty to bear half the burden. As I see it, you've only got one option."

"What's that?"

"Lean on me when you're not strong," Linda quotes the song, slipping an arm around Danny's shoulders. As his arm slides around her waist, she starts singing. "And I'll be your friend, I'll help you carry on."

Danny kisses her, "I'll talk, but not here."

"I'll be here," she lays her head against his. "I'll always be here when you need me."

********** 

Later, after Jack and Sean are asleep, Danny decides to talk to Linda. She is securely snuggled against him in bed, his fingers lightly scratching her scalp is slowly putting her to sleep. She is close to sleeping when Danny started to talk, waking her. 

“You want me to talk, but I don’t know what to say. There was a lot of static, and I got that damn headache right in the middle of my face. Y’know the one.”

“Mhmm,” Linda replies sleepily, wanting to stay awake to hear what he has to say.

“I was angry... and sad.”

“PTSD sucks, huh?”

“Yeah. And who’s to say where I’d be if I didn’t have you, or the boys, or the family?”

“But you do have us. You’ll always have us. And we will always love you.” Linda pushes herself up to look him in the eye. “Never forget that, okay?”

Danny nods and gives her a kiss, “I love you.”

“I love you more.”

“I love you most.”

Satisfied, Linda snuggles against Danny once again. “I’m sorry this case brought up some bad memories.”

“Me, too... but I’m okay now. Except for these damn headaches. I wish they would go away.”

“They will. You don’t have a concussion, but if the headaches get worse and start to blur your vision, you’ll need an X-ray.”

Danny nods again. “I’m glad I have you. You always know how to make everything better.”

Linda smiles, “I’m glad I have you. You make things better too.”

He notes she was sounding more tired by the minute. “I doubt that.”

“No doubting! That’s bad, remember?”

“Oh yeah. Sorry.”

“‘S’okay.”

Danny feels Linda drifting off in his arms, so he stops talking. He maybe (probably) should’ve said more, but what is there to say? He is just glad Linda is willing to listen to whatever he had to say, no matter how tired she is at that moment. 

Before falling asleep himself, Danny kisses Linda’s head. “I love you.”


End file.
